Tag: japan

Censorship Allegations Resurface as New Demonetization Coalition Takes Shape

A new organization has emerged, seemingly as a successor to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), which disbanded in early August under a cloud of controversy and accusations of corporate censorship, according to a new letter.

This new entity dubbed the “Dentsu Coalition,” was formed by Dentsu, a major Japanese PR firm and original GARM member, alongside The 614 Group, a prominent ad consulting firm. Their stated mission is to bolster “credible news” and foster a thriving journalistic environment through the collective effort of leading advertising industry figures.

However, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, expressed concerns in a letter sent to Dentsu Americas CEO Michael Komasinski that the Dentsu Coalition might be walking a path similar to its predecessor. Jordan highlighted that GARM, during its operation, engaged in practices that appeared to suppress certain media voices by guiding major advertisers on which news sources were deemed “credible,” with a noticeable bias favoring left-leaning media. He noted that these practices could potentially violate the Sherman Act by unlawfully restraining trade under the guise of social justice.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

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What Was A Japanese Spy Doing In Belarus?

Belarusian media reported earlier this month that their security services busted a Japanese spy. He allegedly entered into a fictitious marriage that helped him legalize his stay in the country, after which he set up a business in Gomel to explain his travels, including to the border. He also taught Japanese. The spy allegedly had over 9,000 photos of roads, bridges, and military facilities and was actively in contact with his embassy. These reports raised a lot of eyebrows since few expected Japan to spy on Belarus. 

As it turns out, his home base of Gomel is in Ukraine’s crosshairs as explained last month here, and it’s possible that the security services’ additional scrutiny on all activities there as part of their precautionary measures resulted in them finally catching him. His interrogation also revealed that he was involved in the failed summer 2020 Color Revolution and had been monitoring the socio-economic situation as well, including the availability and prices of goods as well as locals’ reaction to this.

Considering the importance of his activities, especially in the context of the special operation, there’s no way that he’d be allowed to continue operating if anyone had picked up on what he was doing earlier. It’s therefore almost certainly the case that he only came on their radar recently as was speculated above. This means that he was transmitting highly sensitive information during the past two years of the New Cold War’s top proxy war, thus raising the question of why Japan would want to do this in the first place.

What might have been going on is that Japan was passing everything along to its Western partners in the implied hopes of them then supporting it more in its own part of the world. His most recent activities might also have played a role in Ukraine’s recent drone provocations in Belarus. In fact, he might have been pressured by his handlers into taking more risks than usual because the West demanded more information for Ukraine, which could have contributed to him finally getting caught.

This explanation is the most logical since Japan couldn’t act on its own with what that spy hadn’t uncovered this entire time. It was also reported that he was spying on China’s Belt & Road Initiative investments too, of which its primary one in Belarus is the “Great Stone” industrial park, which could have disguised his more nefarious activities had he been caught earlier under different circumstances. It’s much better, after all, to be busted for conducting “business intelligence” than military intelligence.

In retrospect, there’s not much that the security services could have done better to have stopped him ahead of time.

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Japan’s Emergency Press Conference Highlights Urgent Concerns About mRNA Replicon Vaccine Approval

On September 12, 2024, Japanese Member of Parliament Ryuhei Kawada led a highly charged emergency press conference in Japan, voicing deep skepticism about the country’s upcoming launch of mRNA replicon vaccines, or what some call self-amplifying mRNA vaccines. The event set off alarm bells among critics of government policies, accusing authorities of prioritizing pharmaceutical profits over public health.

What are mRNA Replicon Vaccines?

As you know, mRNA COVID vaccines, like those developed by Pfizer and Moderna for COVID-19, use a small piece of genetic code (mRNA) to instruct your cells to produce a piece of the virus known as the spike protein.

On the other hand, self-amplifying mRNA vaccines, or replicon vaccines, represent a more advanced version where the mRNA not only instructs your cells to produce the spike protein but also makes copies of itself (yay! more mRNA…) once inside the cells.

ARCT-154, scheduled to be administered to the population in October 2024, is a self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine from the dynamic duo of Arcturus Therapeutics and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. In Japan, Arcturus Therapeutics found an ally in CSL Seqirus for crafting and distributing their vaccines through a local pharma company called Meiji Seika Pharma.

Arcturus Therapeutics is a biotech company located in San Diego, California, established in 2013. Just like Moderna, which didn’t release any products to the market until their mRNA experimental COVID vaccine, Arcturus also hasn’t launched any medical products yet, and their self-amplifying mRNA vaccine will be their first.

Arcturus was formed through a merger with Alcobra Pharma, an Israeli pharmaceutical company, after Alcobra faced difficulties during clinical trials, which led to their merger with Arcturus Therapeutics in 2017. Interestingly, Alcobra translates to “The Cobra.” You have to wonder who decided that naming their pharma company after a snake was a good idea. At this point, my eyes are rolling all the way to the back of my head, so I will stop talking about the company’s history here.

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US Wants To Deploy Controversial Missile System to Japan

The US wants to deploy a previously banned missile system to Japan for military drills, Nikkei Asia reported Thursday.

The Typhon missile launcher is a ground-based system that can fire nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles. Ground-based missiles with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles were banned by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019. The Typhon also fires SM-6 missiles, which can hit targets up to 290 miles away.

The US deployed a Typhon system to the Philippines for military drills, a move that China viewed as a major provocation. The missile system was sent to the Philippines for several months. It was first deployed for the drills that started in April, and Manila said it would be pulled out in September, meaning it could still be there.

The Philippines said China expressed “very dramatic” alarm over the deployment of the Typhon system. Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said the deployment “put the entire region under the fire of the United States (and) brought huge risks of war into the region.”

US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said on Wednesday that she told Japanese officials the US wanted to deploy the Typhon to Japan next. “We’ve made our interest in this clear with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces,” she said at a Defense News conference in Virginia.

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The Japanese-Philippine Military Logistics Pact Raises The Risk Of War With China

It’s no secret that the US is preparing to “Pivot (back) to Asia” in order to more muscularly contain China, but few have paid attention to the form in which this is expected to take in the coming future. Instead of the US doing so on its own or through the previously assembled Quad of itself, Australia, India, and Japan, it’s increasingly relying on the Squad. This framework swaps India out for the Philippines, and its latest relevant development was the clinching of a Japanese-Philippine military logistics pact.

That agreement follows April’s first-ever trilateral US-Japanese-Philippine summit, which tightened the US’ containment noose around China, and came approximately nine months after those three’s National Security Advisors met for the first time ever in June 2023. In practice, Japan will likely ramp up its military exercises with the Philippines and explore more arms deals, with those two possibly also roping Taiwan into their activities to an uncertain extent in the future given that it’s roughly equidistant between them.

This will increase the chances of a conflict by miscalculation since China has already recently shown that it has the political will to respond to violations of the maritime territory that it claims as its own as proven by its latest low-intensify clashes with the Philippines. Even though the US has mutual defense obligations to the Philippines and has recently reminded China of them, it’s been reluctant to meaningfully act on its commitments for de-escalation reasons, but that could easily change.

After all, the US would be pressured to respond if China clashes with both its Japanese and Philippine allies in the event that they jointly violate the maritime territory that Beijing claims as its own, though they might of course abstain from such a provocation for the time being for whatever reason. In any case, it can’t be ruled out that something of the sort might eventually transpire, which could prompt a dangerous brinksmanship crisis that risks spiraling out of control if cooler heads on all sides don’t prevail.

Southeast Asia isn’t the only battleground in the Sino-US dimension of the New Cold War since Northeast Asia is rapidly shaping up to be a complementary one as well. North Korea recently accused the US, South Korea, and Japan of conspiring to create an “Asian NATO” after their latest trilateral drills. South Korea is a prime candidate for joining the Squad, which can also be described as AUKUS+, with Japan playing the senior partner role in that scenario exactly as it now plays with the Philippines.

That likely won’t happen anytime soon though since the South Koreans remain resentful of Japan’s World War II-era occupation that Tokyo hasn’t ever taken full responsibility for in their view. Trilateral drills under America’s aegis are one thing, but entering into a military-logistics pact with their former colonizer is an altogether different matter, especially if it leads to the latter gaining the upper hand. Nevertheless, South Korea is expected to scale up its role in AUKUS+, with Japan as its top Asian partner.

The grand strategic trend is that the US is forming two Asian trilaterals with itself and Japan that are centered on the Philippines in Southeast Asia and South Korea in Northeast Asia.

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Japanese oncologist: I didn’t have a covid vaccine because I thought the genetic vaccines were foolish from the beginning

On 19 April 2024, Commissione Medico Scientifica Indipendente (“CMSi”) held an online conference titled ‘Perspectives of the World Health Organisation: from advisory body to world government?’.  One of the experts giving a presentation was Prof. Masanori Fukushima. 

Prof. Fukushima is a Professor Emeritus of Kyoto University, Director of the Translational Research Centre for Medical Innovation and the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation, President of the Foundation of Learning Health Society Institute and former Director of the Outpatient Oncology Unit of Kyoto University Hospital. He is the author of more than 290 scientific publications.

During his presentation, hosted by Italian biologist Dr. Panagis Polykretis, Prof. Fukushima said:

 “Genetic vaccines are totally unacceptable. The introduction of transgenes into the human body is gene therapy.   How can this be considered acceptable for creating vaccines?

“If you encapsulate mRNA in nanoparticles and administer it you only get off-target effects starting from the ovaries, to the brain, liver, spleen and bone marrow. The biggest problem is going to the bone marrow, the reproductive organs like the ovaries and then every possible organ.

“The fact that spike proteins are still detected in the rash after more than a year makes it obvious that mRNA is producing spike proteins. There is no way for a year-old spike protein to remain in the rash and be detected.

“I didn’t choose to get vaccinated because I think it was a foolish decision from the beginning.  I haven’t even opted for the flu shot because I consider it an unwise choice.”

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Bizarre humanoid robot with a face made out of living skin tissue is created by researchers in Japan

In sci-fi films like Alien, humanoid robots are so lifelike that it’s almost impossible to tell them from a real person.

Now, scientists in Japan are on their way to creating real-life versions of these realistic machines. 

The experts from the University of Tokyo have created a robotic face out of lab-grown human skin. 

Creepy video shows the bizarre pink creation attempting a cheesy smile.  

According to the scientists, robots with real skin not only have an ‘increasingly lifelike appearance’ but could heal themselves if damaged. 

The research has been led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo and detailed in a new study in Cell Reports Physical Science.

Professor Takeuchi’s lab has already created mini robots that walk using biological muscle tissue, 3D printed lab-grown meat and engineered skin that can heal.

‘We managed to replicate human appearance to some extent by creating a face with the same surface material and structure as humans,’ said Professor Takeuchi.  

The ‘engineered skin tissue’ is made by taking a sample of human skin cells and growing them in the lab – similar to how cultured meat is developed. 

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Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Seek Justice

On June 8th, 2024, in Hiroshima, Japan, The International People’s Tribunal On The 1945 Atomic Bombings met with the goal of holding the United States accountable for the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This People’s Tribunal focuses on the Korean bomb victims, 100,000 of whom were forcibly taken from their homeland by the Japanese to work in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the war and were subsequently exposed to the A-bomb blasts.

The recent Tribunal gathering in Hiroshima consisted of legal scholars from Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, discussing legal theories to hold the United States accountable for violating international law for the 1945 atomic bombings, and attempting to establish the illegality of current nuclear threats and nuclear weapon states.

The Tribunal and its Korean plaintiffs are also seeking an official apology from the United States to the Korean victims for the dropping of the two atomic bombs. First and second-generation victims of these bombings were present at the conference and gave powerful testimony as to the multigenerational effects from the bomb blasts.

The Tribunal itself will hold its opening gavel proceedings in New York City in May of 2026 to coincide with the United Nations meeting on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Participants in the June 8th conference were given a tour of the Hiroshima Peace Park and the Hiroshima Peace Museum, which solemnly exhibits the horrific events of August 6th, 1945. Throughout the museum are displays of the burnt and tattered remnants of children’s clothing, charred bicycles, panoramas of the city after detonation, and graphic pictures of atomic bomb victims staggering toward the rivers of Hiroshima in a futile effort to extinguish their pain.

In a single white flash, some 70,000 souls were extinguished at 8:15 in the morning on that August day. Black Rain followed, pouring down on the alive and the barely alive radioactive water. Charred bodies covered the ground and filled the rivers.

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U.S. Buying ‘Safe and Delicious’ Fukushima Fish Banned by Other Countries

Japan last month completed its fifth release into the Pacific Ocean of treated contaminated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Local fishing groups, residents, neighboring countries and many scientists and environmental organizations strongly oppose the discharges, citing concerns about the contaminated water’s effects on human and environmental health.

In an attempt to allay those concerns, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last Septemer, following the first discharge, released a video clip of himself eating Fukushima fish, which he called “safe and delicious.”

And Japan’s economic minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, ate sashimi in Tokyo for the news cameras. “It’s really the best!” he said, The New York Times reported.

That didn’t stop China, Russia and South Korea from banning the import of Japanese seafood, over concerns about radioactive contamination.

But the U.S. took a different tack. In October 2023, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel announced the U.S. military would buy bulk Japanese seafood for service members stationed at military bases in Japan and explore more broadly how to help offset China’s ban on Japan’s seafood.

Emanual said the contract between Japanese fisheries and the U.S. armed forces would be long-term. It began by purchasing a metric ton of scallops with plans to expand eventually to all types of seafood.

He said the U.S. was also in talks with Japanese authorities to direct locally caught scallops to U.S.-registered processors and said the U.S. would look at its overall fish imports from Japan and China.

About a month before the announcement the Japanese embassy hosted a sushi-tasting event at the U.S. Capitol to protest China’s decision to ban Japanese seafood.

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UFO investigation launched in Japan after U.S. report designates region as “hotspot” for sightings

UFO sightings should not be dismissed because they could in fact be surveillance drones or weapons, say Japanese lawmakers who launched a group on Thursday to probe the matter. The investigation comes less than a year after the U.S. Defense Department issued a report calling the region a “hotspot” for sightings of the mysterious objects.

The non-partisan group, which counts former defense ministers among its 80-plus members, will urge Japan to ramp up abilities to detect and analyze unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), more commonly known as UFOs, or unidentified flying objects.

Although the phenomenon is often associated with little green men in the popular imagination, it has become a hot political topic in the United States.

The Pentagon said last year it was examining 510 UFO reports — more than triple the number in its 2021 file.

The Japanese parliamentarians hope to bring the domestic perception of UAP in line with its ally’s following several scares related to suspected surveillance operations.

“It is extremely irresponsible of us to be resigned to the fact that something is unknowable, and to keep turning a blind eye to the unidentified,” group member and former defense minister Yasukazu Hamada said before the launch.

In an embarrassment for Japan’s defense ministry, unauthorized footage of a docked helicopter destroyer recently spread on Chinese social media after an apparent drone intrusion into a military facility.

And last year, the ministry said it “strongly presumes” that flying objects sighted in Japanese skies in recent years were surveillance balloons sent by China.

In Japan, UFOs have long been seen as “an occult matter that has nothing to do with politics,” opposition lawmaker Yoshiharu Asakawa, a pivotal member of the group, has said.

But if they turn out to be “cutting-edge secret weapons or spying drones in disguise, they can pose a significant threat to our nation’s security.”

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